Engaging and exciting, but a hassle to set up with WiFi everytime.

My Take

My routine is: 1. Start Cozmo, which often consists of taking Cozmo off the charger, placing Cozmo back on the charger, press the button on Cozmo's back. 2. Open iPad and go to Settings/wifi, and select the Cozmo##### network. 3. Load the Cozmo app and dismiss whatever notification might pop-up, then click connect and wait for Cozmo to "wake up".

I like how cute the Cozmo is. How engaging it is. I like that I can have kids learn how to code with it as well as play games with it. I like that it has a camera and that you can type words in for it to say (and it has pretty decent pronunciation). It would be a really great tool to use with a whole class full of students. BUT.... The setup.

I can envision some people saying that its no big deal. Maybe. Maybe. lets say I go 1:2 robot:student ratio. If I pull 15 ipads and as many Cozmo robots, I will then have students changing the wifi on 15 ipads. It could go well, but I have seen easier tasks derail when I hand out devices to all of my students. I would prefer to have the connection process be easier- Sphero comes to mind. Sphero has a very easy connection process. Please Anki, if you are listening, re-work the connection process.

TLDR: It is engaging but a hassle to set up. I was thinking that if it worked I might roll out a bunch of them, like get a set of 12 or something, but because the setup is such a hassle, that's definitely not going to happen. Which is sad.